Paleo Sweet Potato Casserole (and the Rest of Sunday Dinner)

Sunday is a big cooking day at Casa de la CupcakesOMG! It's when I go shopping for the next 4 days of paleo meals and do little more than stand in the kitchen and cook for 6 hours, wash my hair, and watch Drop Dead Diva. By the end of it, I'm pretty much in no mood to make an entirely separate meal to celebrate the end of a day of what should be rest. However, this Sunday, Kyle and I had company for dinner and we wanted to do something a bit more special. Perhaps inspired by our recent trip to Texas, Kyle was all aflutter at the prospect of making pulled pork, so that's what he did while I whipped up my favorite mayo-less cole slaw and a new recipe for sweet potato casserole. And of course, it was all entirely paleo.

 As a kid Even now, my favorite part about the sweet potato casserole at Thanksgiving was the toasted marshmallow topping. I would eat just the marshmallows and my grandmother would add more to the potatoes and toast them again because I liked them so much. So okay, we're agreed that marshmallows have about as much nutritional value as a tank of gas, which is why I subbed in a cinnamon maple pecan topping instead.

Four gigantic sweet potatoes later, whipped with some coocnut milk, spices, maple syrup, and a toasted pecan topping and your new paleo-improved side dish is complete!

Kyle's cousin Brooke made dessert--homemade peach ice cream made with grassfed cream, roasted peaches, egg yolks, and maple syrup. I mean, it was G.D. incredible y'all!

Sweet Potato Casserole
Makes a ton (i.e., 12 servings-ish)

• 4 large sweet potatoes
• 1/2 cup canned coconut milk
• 1 Tbsp. coconut oil
• 1-2 Tbsp. maple syrup
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• juice of half an orange

Pecan topping

• 3/4 cup chopped raw pecans
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp melted coconut oil

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. While water comes to a boil, peel and dice sweet potatoes into large chunks.

2. Add sweet potato chunks to water. Boil until fork tender--about 10 minutes.

3. Drain potatoes, then dump them back in the large pot with all the other ingredients. Using a hand mixer, blend until potatoes reach desired consistency and flavor. (You may like to add a little more coconut milk, spices, or syrup based on your taste.)

4. In a small bowl, combine all topping ingredients until pecans are well coated.

5. Dump sweet potatoes into an oven safe dish and top with pecans.

6. Bake in preheated oven until topping is browned--about 15 minutes. Serve warm.